SIMEON (or Symeon) OF DURHAM (d. after 1129), English chronicler, embraced the monastic life before the year 1083 in the monastery of Jarrow; but only made his profession at a later date, after he had removed with the rest of his community to Durham. He was author of two historical works which are particularly valuable for northern affairs. He composed his Historia ecclesiae Dunelmensis, extending to the year 1096, at some date between 1104 and 1108. The original manuscript is at Durham in the library of Bishop Cosin. It is divided into four books, which are subdivided into chapters; the order of the narrative is chronological. There are two continuations, both anonymous. The first carries the history from 1096 to the death of Ranulf Flambard (1129); the second extends from 1133 to 1144. A Cambridge MS. contains a third continuation covering the years 1141-1154. About 1129 Simeon undertook to write a Historia regum Anglorum et Dacorum. This begins at the point where the Ecclesiastical History of Bede ends. Up to 957 Simeon merely copies some old Durham annals, not otherwise preserved, which are of value for northern history; from that point to 1119 he copies Florence of Worcester with certain interpolations. The section dealing with the years 1119-1129 is, however, an independent and practically contemporaneous narrative. Simeon writes, for his time, with ease and perspicuity; but his chief merit is that of a diligent collector and copyist.
Other writings have been attributed to his pen, but on no good authority. They are printed, along with his undoubted works, in the Scriptores decem of Roger Twysden (1652). The most complete modern edition is that of Thomas Arnold (“Rolls” series, 2 vols., 1882-1885). The value of the “Northumbrian Annals,” which Simeon used for the Historia regum, has been discussed by J. H. Hinde in the preface to his Symeonis Dunelmensis opera, vol. i. pp. xiv. ff. (1868); by R. Pauli in Forschungen zur deutschen Geschichte, xii. pp. 137 sqq. (Göttingen, 1872); and by W. Stubbs in the introduction to Roger of Hoveden, vol. i. p. x. (“Rolls” series). Simeon's works have been translated by J. Stevenson in his Church Historians of England, vol. iii. part ii. (1855).
SIMEON, CHARLES (1759-1836), English evangelical divine, was born at Reading and educated at Eton and Cambridge. In 1782 he became fellow of King's College, Cambridge, and took orders, receiving the living of Holy Trinity, Cambridge, in the following year. He was at first so unpopular that the services were frequently interrupted, and he was often insulted in the streets. Having lived down this prejudice, he subsequently gained a very remarkable and lasting influence among the undergraduates of the university. He became a leader among evangelical churchmen, was one of the founders of the Church Missionary Society, and acted as adviser to the East India Company in the choice of chaplains for India. His chief work is a commentary upon the whole Bible, entitled Horae homileticae (London, 1819-1820). He died on the 13th of November 1836. The “Simeon Trustees” were instituted by him for the purpose of acquiring church patronage in the interests of evangelical views.
See Memoirs of Charles Simeon, with a selection from his writings and correspondence, edited by the Rev. W. Carus (3rd ed., 1848); H. C. G. Moule, Charles Simeon (London, 1892).
SIMÉON, JOSEPH JÉRÔME, Comte (1749-1842), French jurist and politician, was born at Aix on the 30th of September 1749. His father, Joseph Sextius Simeon (1717-1788), had been professor of law and royal secretary for the parlement of Provence. J. J. Simeon followed his father's profession, but he was outlawed for his share in the federalist movement in 1793, and only returned to France after the revolution of Thermidor. In the council of the Five Hundred, of which he was now a member, he took the conservative side. In 1799, for protesting against the invasion of the chamber by P. F. C. Augereau, he was imprisoned until the 18th Brumaire (9th November). In the Tribunate he had an important share in the preparation of the Civil Code, being rewarded by a seat in the council of state. In 1807 he was one of the commissioners sent to organize the new kingdom of Westphalia, and was premier of King Jerome. He served the Restoration as councillor of state and in the chamber of peers. In 1820 he was under-secretary of state for justice, and in the next year minister of the interior until the fall of the Richelieu ministry. A baron of the Empire and count at the second Restoration, he was admitted to the Academy of Moral and Political Science in 1832, and in 1837 he became president of the Cour des Comptes. He died in Paris on the 19th of January 1842 in his 93rd year.
His son, Joseph Balthasar, Comte Siméon (1781-1846), entered the diplomatic service under the Empire. At the Restoration he was successively prefect of Var, Doubs and Pas de Calais. He was director-general of fine arts in 1828, and had a great reputation as a connoisseur and collector.
SIMEON STYLITES, ST (390-459), the first and most famous of the Pillar-hermits (Gr. στύλος, pillar), was born in N. Syria. After having been expelled from a monastery for his excessive austerities, at thirty years of age he built a pillar six feet high on which he took up his abode. He made new pillars higher and higher, till after ten years he reached the height of sixty feet. On this pillar he lived for thirty years without ever descending. A railing ran round the capital of the pillar, and a ladder enabled his disciples to take him the necessaries of life. From his pillar he preached and exercised a great influence, converting numbers of heathen and taking part in ecclesiastical politics. The facts would seem incredible were they not vouched for by Theodoret, who knew him personally (Historia religiosa, c. 26). Moreover, Simeon had many imitators, well authenticated Pillar-hermits being met with till the 16th century.
The standard work on the subject is Les Stylites (1895), by H. Delehaye, the Bollandist; for a summary see the article “Säulenheilige,” in Herzog's Realencyklopädie (ed. 3). On Simeon see Th. Nöldeke's Sketches from Eastern History (1892), p. 210, and the Dictionary of Christian Biography.
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SIMFEROPOL, a town of Russia, capital of the government of Taurida, in the S. of the Crimea, 78 m. by rail N.E. of Sevastopol and 800 from Moscow. Pop. (1897) 60,876. It occupies an admirable site on the N. slopes of the Chatyr-dagh Mountains, and is divided into two parts—the European, well built in stone, and the Tatar, with narrow and filthy streets peopled by some 7000 Tatars and by Jews. Although it has grown since the railway brought it into connexion with the rest of the empire, it still remains a mere administrative centre. It is the see of a bishop of the Orthodox Greek Church and the headquarters of the 7th Russian army corps. There are a museum and monuments to Dolgoruki, conqueror of the Crimea, and to the empress Catherine II. (1890). The town is famous for its fruit.
In the neighbourhood stood the small fortress of Napoli, erected by the ruler of Taurida some hundred years before the Christian era, and it existed until the end of the 3rd century. Afterwards the Tatar settlement of Ak-mechet, which in the 17th century was the residence of the chief military commander of the khan, had the name of Sultan-serai. In 1736 it was taken and burnt by the Russians, and in 1784, after the conquest of the Crimea by the Russians, it received its present name and became the capital of Taurida.
SIMLA, a town and district in British India, in the Delhi division of the Punjab. The town is the summer residence of the viceroy and staff of the supreme government, and also of the Punjab government. It is 58 m. by cart-road from the railway station of Kalka, which is 1116 m. from Calcutta. A metre-gauge railway, 68 m. long, was opened from Kalka to Simla in 1903. The population in 1901 was 13,960, but that was only the winter population, and the summer census of 1904 returned the number of 35,250. The sanatorium of Simla occupies a spur of the lower Himalaya, running E. and W. for about 6 m. The ridge culminates at the E. in the eminence of Jakko, in the vicinity of which bungalows are most numerous; the viceregal lodge stands on Observatory Hill. The E. of the station is known as Chota Simla and the W. as Boileauganj. The situation is one of great beauty; and the houses, built separately, lie at elevations between 6600 and 8000 ft. above sea-level. To the N., a beautiful wooded spur, branching from the main ridge, is known as Elysium. Three miles W. is the cantonment of Jutogh. The minor sanatoria of Kasauli, Sabathu, Dagshai and Solon he some distance to the S. The first European house at Simla was built in 1819, and the place was first visited by a governor-general in 1827. It has gradually
